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Friday, February 18, 2011

Cat-tle Ranching and Other Growth Industries in a Post-Apocalyptic Economy

Be it by asteroid or comet (yes there is a difference), biological, chemical or nuclear war, the end of the Maya calendar, a robotic rebellion, zombies, aliens, Obama being re-elected or the Republicans winning back the White House, global warming,or kids that play video games it seems that everyone from the politicians, to Hollywood and raving lunatics (no I can't tell the difference either), religious leaders, scientists, and pretty much everybody on the internet (and we all know that the internet never lies) agree that the end is upon us. So in light of the coming apocalypse it seems prudent to begin considering what kind of career to pursue after your current job is downsized by the horrific, violent, fiery end of the world as we know it. In today's installment of our examination of the post-apocalyptic economy we'll be discussing one possible career in the field of agriculture; cat-tle ranching. This form of ranching is in many ways similar in many ways to the current practice of cattle ranching with the most notable difference being the use of cats rather than the more traditional cows or sheep. The logic behind raising cats is simple; they require substantially less care than other larger more traditional forms of livestock, they breed more quickly, they are a hardier breed of animal and therefore more likely to survive the initial stages of the apocalypse in sufficient numbers for viable ranching, there are already some recipes out there, and they serve the secondary benefit of consuming mice, rats and other small vermin which are major disease vectors and will likely see large increases in population as they feed on the remnants of the civilization, people and animals lost in the world's initial collapse. In the world after the end of the world cat-tle farming could well be a family's way out of poverty, starvation and despair and into the new society emerging from the wreckage of the old. On future in of this program we'll look at other lucrative post-apocalyptic careers such as Twinkie tracker, bait, and chia pet farming.